


Above, Below and Everything Between

by Barid (Finale)



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Crowley Was Raphael Before He Fell (Good Omens), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-26
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-05-19 23:27:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19365853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finale/pseuds/Barid
Summary: After the Apocanope, Michael decides she needs to get out of Heaven and figure out what to do next. One thing she needs to do? Figure out what it is about humanity that made the Antichrist decide to stop the War of Wars.Another thing to do? Figure out why the demon Crawly seems so familiar, even though she's never had to deal with him before the failed Apocalypse. After all, it's not like he's one of the Fallen.Right?





	1. Dereliction of Duty

Gabriel chokes as he steps into Michael’s office and spots the paper sitting on her desk. He’d noticed a few hours earlier that his sister wasn’t helping deal with the fallout from the failure of the Apocalypse. It’s not like Michael. Generally she’s just as hardworking as he is, but since that fuck up Aziraphale and Crawly made of everything...she’s been distracted to say the least. 

And an empty desk with only a note on it makes him suspect he’s going to be very unhappy. 

He picks it up slowly and…

“HEAVEN BLESS IT MICHAEL!” 

_ I need to take a break and figure things out. I’ll be back at some point this century.  _

Why, oh why, does his family need to make things difficult for him...

* * *

Michael isn’t used to having her hair down, or wearing things other than suits. But both would arguably make it easier for Gabriel or one of the others to find her. So instead, hair down, no makeup, jeans that are probably unwisely tight, a plain red shirt and a brown jacket. She doesn’t want to be found, she doesn’t want to deal with the mess in Heaven.  _ She just wants to think and figure out ‘why?’ _

The Apocalypse had failed. The Antichrist rather than starting the war between Heaven and Hell had chosen to defend humanity (and aptly shares the name of the first human…). For some reason the Great Plan had failed, and based on both Aziraphale and Crawly surviving, Mother didn’t want them punished. On top of that, she really needs to figure out why Crawly seems familiar. She’s fairly certain she never dealt with him in Heaven.

The bar she’s at isn’t quite dingy, but it’s not the sort of place someone would expect an angel, let alone an archangel to be in. Then again, most people don’t envision angels in bars. Maybe drinking in churches or synagogues, but definitely not in a bar.

Michael chokes as someone sits across from her. The woman smirks at her, and plops a bottle of arak on the table. It’s a familiar face, even though Michael thinks the last time she’d seen the woman was about five hundred years ago in Iraq. 

“What name are you going by these days?” Michael asks, taking the glass of arak the she  offers. She sincerely doubts the other is still calling herself Chana like she was then.

“Eve Malka,” she says. “Pretending to be my own daughter again. Easier to explain, obviously, and no one ever looks that closely.”

“Fair,” Michael acknowledges. Smart way of getting around people noticing the immortality issue.

“What are you doing down here without the suit? Something to do with the mess in Tadfield?”

Michael spits out her drink and gapes at her. “How do you even _ know  _ about that?” The other isn’t an angel or demon, just an odd immortal so…

Eve just smiles serenely at her and Michael bites back a groan. She’s heard from her siblings who have also dealt with the immortal how disconcertingly informed she can be, but she’s never had to deal with it herself. Eve rarely did things that required archangel intervention. Or for that matter dealing with the Prince of Hell, since she’d heard rumors about some conflict between Beelzebub and Eve nearly fifteen hundred years ago.

“I’m trying to get my thoughts together,” Michael admits, deciding to leave alone the question of how Eve knew about the failed Apocalypse. “It’s just…”

She’d been so prepared for everything. She’d been in her armor, she’d had her sword on her hip. Her garrison was ready to fight, and she’d organized Raphael’s former garrison too. 

She’d readied herself to see  ~~Sammael ~~ _ Lucifer _ again.

~~ This time he wouldn’t get a chance to almost break her wings again. This time he wouldn’t be able to hurt her.  ~~

“You prepared for so long and then it didn’t happen?” Eve asks, taking a sip of her drink. 

“Yes. I had prepared for every possibility except for that,” Michael admits. 

“Well, to be fair there was no real reason you should have expected that to happen. I would have assumed you had someone keeping an eye on the kid, and they just misunderstood human cultural norms to the point of thinking everything would be as you wished.”

Michael grimaces. “Unfortunately we didn’t have anyone watching over the Antichrist. Or rather, we had assumed Aziraphale, the former Guard of the Eastern Gate, had been keeping an eye on him. What we’ve been able to discover so far is that the Antichrist wasn’t given to the intended family, and as a result the child he had been watching over had just been a normal human child.”

Never trust someone who’s gone native; always a mistake. 

“So now what?” Eve asks, pouring her more arak.

Huh. She hadn’t even noticed she’d drunken her entire glass…

“Travel. Try to figure out what it is about humanity that the Antichrist, Aziraphale, and Crawly  were so determined to protect.” Figure out why Crawly feels familiar beyond his status as the Serpent and one of the Fallen. 

“Want me to join you?”

Michael pauses and studies the immortal’s face. She’s sincere. 

“Sure. Not as if I know much about how to blend in with humanity.” Something that she’s willing to admit, even though she’s well aware of Gabriel’s failure to do so. She’d heard about the pornograhy thing. Michael doesn’t understand why he thought anything about that was normal.

“Excellent. Where do you want to start?”

“I heard a rumor you founded a school fifteen hundred years ago. Why not there?”

* * *

“So no one has any idea?” Gabriel asks, more than a bit desperate.

“None,” Uriel says with a shake of her head. “No one in her garrison or Raphael’s former know anything.”

Gabriel closes his eyes. There is no way this is going to end well for him. He just knows it.


	2. Education of the World

It’s been a month, and no one has found even a hint of Michael. Gabriel’s more than a bit desperate; while he’s technically been In Charge since the War in Heaven ended, it was only because Michael didn’t want to be in charge like that. Not after how the War went. 

~~Not when her other half Fell. Not when her other half tried to drag her down and break her wings.~~

But he could always rely on being able to go to Michael for help! If something went wrong, he could go to his eldest sister and she could figure it out!

So where in Creation is she?!

If he can’t find her soon he’s going to have to take drastic measures...

* * *

“So what exactly is it you want to understand about humanity?” Eve asks, sitting under a pomegranate tree on her school’s grounds. “Beyond ‘why do those two like it so much?’”

“A lot of it is that,” Michael points out. “I can’t understand what it is about humanity that made them so unwilling to follow the Great Plan.” Or for Aziraphale to repeatedly point out that the Great Plan isn’t necessarily the Ineffable Plan.

She’s willing to admit to herself, if not Eve, how much that had bothered her. 

“Well, maybe the Great Plan was supposed to be a test,” Eve says, and that makes Michael feel cold. 

If it _was_ a test, then arguably only Crowley and Aziraphale passed. 

“I don’t like that idea,” Michael admits. 

“Just because you don’t like something doesn’t mean it isn’t what happened or what should happen.” Eve cuts into the pomegranate in her hand, plucked from the tree just before she’d sat down. “I don’t like, for example, that Gabriel claimed to be buying porn when he’d been holding a collection of children’s stories.”

…

“How does the pornography incident get worse and worse every time I hear about it or have to think about it?” Michael asks with a sigh. 

“Because it was a stupid situation,” Eve says bluntly. “Gabriel and Sandalphon didn’t need to go in through the front door. Even if they did need to, they didn’t need to make a production out of getting Aziraphale’s attention.

“None of you have bothered to keep up with humanity outside of a thin veneer of using their technology and business attire. Instead, you take what you view as the ‘useful parts’ and ignore the rest. That’s a massive mistake, because it leads to events like your failed apocalypse.”

“That’s not true!” Michael snaps. 

“Yes it is! Michael. You want me to show you how to interact with humanity? Show you ‘why?’ Aziraphale was so determined to save and protect it?”

“Yes,” Michael mutters. 

“Then listen to me. You can’t go into this with the view Heaven has of humanity no matter what. She created humanity and Earth as more than just weapons and a battleground. I would have assumed Heaven’s General would have known that, seeing as the first War was over humanity being favored over angels.” Eve sighs. “Both sides have treated humanity as expendable and as nothing more than pawns for _your_ uses. Do you really think if that was the case, She would have declared humanity as her favorite?”

Michael chews on her lower lip and looks to the side of Eve. 

After Tadfield she already knows the answer to that.

 _Is the Great Plan the Ineffable Plan?_ According to Tadfield, the answer is no.

“So. Let’s get to learning then!”

* * *

“So, why is the first stop a university?” Michael asks, glancing around the campus. 

“Well, you wanted to ‘learn’ about humanity. So why not take you to a university?” Eve asks, striding along a path. “Universities and other academic institutions serve as  repositories of human information. While there is the disadvantage of if the building or institution gets destroyed, so does the information, it does make it easier to locate things.” She tilts her head slightly. “Of course, that does also lead to issues, including people stealing things to add them to say, a museum.”

“That’s supposed to encourage me to like humanity?”

“Eh, less _like_ and more _try to understand it._ Humans crave knowledge. They have ever since the apple was eaten. They just simply like to know things.” Eve shrugs. “And when they know things, or at least think they do, they sometimes will try to teach.”

“How well does that go?”

“Sometimes well, sometimes not. A certain sibling of yours can tell you _exactly_ how well humanity is willing to learn at times. And even if they do learn something, they may misunderstand it.”

She ignores the pointed look Eve gives her. She is trying to learn after all. 

“Three things to do here today. Stop in the library, listen to a lecture, and chat with some students.”

(Michael is not willing to take fault at the fact she manages to trigger a three hour long debate, including at times yelling, over a discussion concerning Raphael’s role in the angelic hierarchy. It was Eve’s own fault for taking her to a theology class.)

(She is willing to accept fault for accepting a lecturer’s position for the remainder of the year.)

* * *

“So, after the exciting start of our journey, let’s get to the next bit,” Eve says, more than a bit dry. Michael had technically tied them to the university’s campus for almost three months, but she’d enjoyed it. 

Especially debating with people. It’s nice to be able to do that and not worry about anything happening. Well, outside of Greg, but Eve had resolved the Greg Situation. Saved her the effort of miracaling him into the middle of the Pacific. But teaching at the school had shown her a minor merit of humanity. Teaching them could be enjoyable, especially the ones who were willing to learn.

“This time I’m going to take you to a few of the major museums of the world. Ones for art, history, natural sciences, things like that. And you can laugh at the things that are wrong,” Eve adds. “Since paleontology does exist as a scientific field, and we both know the truth about dinosaurs.”

“I never really understood that prank,” Michael admits. “It just seems a bit mean.”

_Then again, She doesn’t seem to mind being mean. She’d cast down Raphael for merely questioning why suffering is allowed. Yes, Lucifer had encouraged him but still._

“Thinking hard thoughts Michael?”

“Yes.” She hopes the sharpness of her response is enough to get Eve to leave it be. 

“Well. Anyway, we’re going to go to the Louvre. It’s an absolutely massive art museum in Paris. It’s also in a former royal palace,” Eve explains. “Please do not argue with anyone over the art, or over depictions of religious figures or stories. Yes, they won’t match with what we know. No, we aren’t going to tell anyone that.”

“I am aware we aren’t supposed to do things like that.”

“And yet you took a position as a theology professor at first opportunity. I don’t even get how you’ve managed to do so well when you don’t have a blessed idea on how humanity’s views.”

Michael shrugs. In truth, she has no clue how she’s succeed either. 

“Again though, don’t making snide comments or get into arguments over the artwork. _Please._ ”

* * *

“Well hopefully a visit to the American Museum of Natural History works better,” Eve says, glaring at Michael. 

Michael is unrepentant. Eve isn’t Her, so she doesn’t actually have to listen to Eve. She probably should but. Oh well. What’s done is done.

It’s not like they got thrown out of the museum, or banned. She just...got into an argument with another visitor. Not her fault the woman had been rude. Saying angels and demons don’t exist, saying that She doesn’t exist…

If it wasn’t for how easy it would have been for the others to notice, she would have smote the woman for her ignorance. 

“It ended fine. And it  did give me ideas for lectures for the coming semester,” Michael says. “Along with some new stories for your students.” 

“You know, you’re fitting in better with humanity than either of us suspected,” Eve says drolly. “You get into arguments and debates and are kind of a massive asshole.”

“According to you, the third thing is what all angels are,” Michael says, rolling her eyes. “But fine, let’s go see this museum. 

* * *

“Alright, here’s the next thing I’m going to show you in terms of human education.” Eve frowns, obviously looking for how to word something. “Remember how I mentioned humans like to learn? Part of why they like to learn is because if they’re educated in what I’ll call a Western sense, it can improve employment chances and the quality of living.”

“I’ve been teaching at a college Eve. I’ve heard students talk about that.”

Eve sighs deeply. “No, not like that. Or at least, not quite like that.” Her dark eyes meet Michael’s. “What I’m going to show you are the schools in rural, poor parts of the world. Parts of the world where an education can be all but impossible to get at the time, or even is denied to students because of who they are.”

“People are...denied education,” Michael says slowly. 

“Yes. They’re stopped by things like the schools being too far away for them to reach. They’re stopped by what their faith is, who their families are, what gender they are. In much of the world, this can prevent and education, and in most cases make it impossible to improve their quality of living.”

“How will this make me understand why those two stood against Heaven and Hell for humanity?” Michael asks. 

“Because you’ll also see what Heaven should have been helping with. You’ll see the ways in which Heaven has been prone to abandoning humanity to,” Eve says, making Michael flinch. “Now follow me.”

She follows Eve’s order, and tries to think of something else. 

(A soft, familiar voice whispers in the back of Michael’s mind, too quiet for her to hear quite yet. _Why will you make them Suffer?_ )

* * *

“We may have another issue,” Sandalphon says with a wince.

Gabriel doesn’t like that look. “What is it?” he asks slowly, almost hoping it has something to do with Aziraphale. 

“Raguel is going on "vacation", and has left orders for their department to listen to no one but them.”  

Gabriel winces. He’d avoided telling the Archangel of Justice the exact truth over Aziraphale’s punishment. He’d intended to have everything said and done before they found out so that they didn’t get involved. Raguel would have been too sympathetic to Aziraphale, Gabriel just knows it.

“Do we know where they’re going at least?” Gabriel asks, a bit desperate at this point. That’s two archangels missing (or rather avoiding Heaven), and in Michael’s case it had been for almost six months. And he doesn’t technically have authority over them unless they want him to. 

All archangels are equal after all.

“Abdiel laughed at me when I asked,” Sandalphon admits. “And as their second in command she probably knows and won’t say anything.” As an archangel’s second in command, the only person capable of giving her orders was Raguel. Anyone else could ask, but only Raguel or Mother could order.

_Fuck._

“We’ll figure out what to do about that later,” Gabriel says, running a hand through normally neat hair and making it messy. “I’m going to assume Zadkiel and Jophiel are both still vowing they don’t know where Michael is?”

“They are.”

Gabriel groans. Why can none of his siblings make life easy for him?!

Everything would be so much easier if the Apocalypse actually had happened...

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [For any of those interested I have a discord for my writing!](https://discord.gg/FkzgtHr)   
>  [I also happen to have a tumblr](https://barid-bel-medar.tumblr.com/)
> 
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> Totally not important that Raguel is off doing things. Totally. 
> 
> In this universe, all the archangels have second in commands. Michael is the only one who has two. Raphael's former second in command technically runs his 'department' but is still not an Archangel (only seven were created, and no one has ever been raised to be one).
> 
> How did Michael actually end up a professor? Even she's not quite certain, it was a weird day and she had to miracle up a sudden human life including academic degrees. As a professor, people just assume her weirdness is because, well, she's an professor. I have yet to meet a single normal person who teaches at a college or greater level.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah I'm not even going to bother pretending this isn't a Raphael!Crowley fic. 
> 
> Yes, Eve will be a major character. This is in part because I want Michael to do a more 'walk the earth' type of deal rather than go hang out in Tadfield or bother Aziraphale and Crowley in London. As such, I want another character for her to play off of. Thus Eve.
> 
> Sammael is a name sometimes assumed to be Lucifer's pre-fall name.


End file.
